


REMATCH

by TheodoreR



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: (He is), Derek is not helping, M/M, Theo just wants to sleep, therek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 22:19:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15783243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheodoreR/pseuds/TheodoreR
Summary: At least in Hell he could sleep. He’d woke up almost immediately to his creepy sister ripping his heart out, sure, but then he’d fall asleep. Or dead, but dead, asleep, it’s kinda the same thing, isn’t it.Here, no, here in Beacon Hills there’s no such thing as letting Theo sleep.**Derek’s life is not a happy one. It just isn’t.He goes for a run every morning at five o’clock and that kinda speaks for itself. No happy person would do that.





	REMATCH

**Author's Note:**

> I’m lost, I’m wandering in these weird place so far from my home Thiamland, can someone please take my hand and accompany me back there? Thanks. But meanwhile, here’s some Therek.

 

 

At least in Hell he could sleep. He’d woke up almost immediately to his creepy sister ripping his heart out, sure, but _then_ he’d fall asleep. Or dead, but dead, asleep, it’s kinda the same thing, isn’t it.   

Here, no, here in Beacon Hills there’s no such thing as letting Theo sleep. It’s like the whole town had a meeting –a very loud one, so that Theo couldn’t sleep not even during that- where everyone, _everyone,_ from the little screaming newborns to the deaf old women, swore to make the town’s collective goal to keep Theo awake. At any time. From dawn to sunset. _No sleep in the happy town of Beacon Hills for the homeless, don’t they have a home where they can go do their homeless things?_  

You’d think sour, lonely Derek Hale is not the type to join collective social activities.

Guess what, you’d be wrong, because there he is, punctual as always, making sure local homeless Theo Raeken doesn’t reach the undeserved amount of two hours of sleep. Legend says unspeakable things happen when he sleeps that much. Luckily for everyone, he hasn’t in ages.

Theo tried to swap up day and night, but it just didn’t work. It’s not the sun, he’s so tired these days he could sleep with a light bulb _inside_ his eyes, but the people. The lovely citizens of Beacon Hills. They’re just so dedicated to the city goal. They don’t take a break. They’re always there –there being _everywhere_ \- coming up with new ways of keeping him awake. A little girl accidentally set him _on fire_ once. Weirdest thing about that? Having to apologize to Sheriff Stilinski, because being set on fire is causing troubles apparently, when you were specifically warned _not to._

Sometimes it looks like they’re not even trying. It’s so natural for them to manage to keep Theo awake during the day, they make it seem so easy, and it probably is: it’s an uneven fight, so many of them against a single man and his car.

Theo almost won though.

The day is off the table because everyone is out there making noise and children that later on will set him on fire, but the night, the night Theo almost did it. He fought with the officers night after night and then he found it, the perfect spot. Just near the Preserve, not _inside_ where his truck can’t go easily, in a place where he never saw a patrol after 4 a.m. Not once. Then of course the next patrol would be around at 6 a.m. because a new day arises, time to make sure all the little pyromaniacs in Beacon Hills are safe, but that’s all Theo needs, really, two hours of quiet, uninterrupted sleep.

That’s where Derek Hale comes into play to save the day. Just when the worst is about to happen and Theo enters his second hour of sleep, he comes running. Without a shirt on. Not even looking at him, because true heroes always make it look effortless.

It’s not like he _screams_ or anything like that. He never set Theo on fire and he never started crying out loud because he wanted ice-cream and a lot of people could probably sleep through that, without noticing someone ran close to their car at all.

Theo is not a lot of people and he had so many bullets put in him the last time he lowered his guard while sleeping in his car, so many. If it was one, okay, he’s a werewolf, no big deal, he heals, but they turned him into a gruyere. Theo doesn’t even like cheese, so thanks but no, if the leaves start crunching and the wind sounds like someone is panting, then Theo wakes up. Even if Derek just proceeds with his run and disappears into the woods without acknowledging him at all, Theo still wakes up. Which means war.

Maybe Derek doesn’t even know he’s there, he doesn’t exactly run right _next_ to his car, it’s just that Theo has a very light sleep and a very strong supernatural hearing, and okay, maybe he can’t take a whole town or a whole police department by himself, but Derek Hale is just one man. A big, kinda scary man, but still one.

Just one man between Theo and his dream, between him and two entire hours of sleep.

 

Still, he’s not doing it. Even Malia stopped glaring at Theo nowadays, so he really can’t fuck all up now by killing their friend. Packmate. Whatever Derek is. Still, it really is a shame. It’d be so easy. He knows his daily route, he has countless hours to plot because he doesn’t sleep anyway, he has the surprise factor. It’d be _so_ easy. But no, Theo is not doing it. He’s so close to get invited to pack nights and there’s pizza there, he won’t fuck it up now. He won’t.

He probably will, to be honest.

 

 

***

 

Derek’s life is not a happy one. It just isn’t.

He goes for a run every morning at five o’clock and that kinda speaks for itself. No happy person would do that.

Maybe it’s because of the _a fire killed my whole family_ thing, or because of the _my girlfriend set the fire_ one, it could also be the _my sister survived but my uncle did too and he killed her_ , and how not to mention his first love dying in his arms because of him, his latest love trying to kill him, or becoming an Alpha just the time to have most of his betas die –one right on the tips of his claws- and then losing his power again. It could be a lot of things, really. But it’s mostly because of the early jogging. You can’t find happiness starting every day like that, at that hour, you just can’t.

Derek is not really looking for happiness though, so 5 a.m. it is, today like every other day.

 

 

He just has one of those faces, he guesses. People just feel the urge to kidnap him.

Derek is used to it, he has been captured and tortured and almost killed –once without the almost actually - so many times, so he’s not really surprised or truly bothered when he falls into a trap and the Chimera kid smirks at him from above. Just another day in the unhappy life of Derek Hale.

“I’m not going to kill you.”

Well, that’s a first.

“I won’t fuck up again, not killing you, nope.” Derek slowly gets back to his feet while the kid shakes his head, looking like he’s talking to himself. He glances around to the hole in the ground where he fell, a deep hole that wasn’t there yesterday, and then he looks up at the kid again. He’s wearing a loose hoodie and his hair has probably seen better day -at least Derek hopes so for his sake, or high school must have been a nightmare. “They’ve just started to trust me, no more murders.” 

“Listen... _Theo_ , right?” He sighs patting his pants to remove the sand and dust from them. Theo looks at him and his eyes are a little too wide and his gaze laboured, like he’s having an hard time focusing. “You don’t look so well, how about you let me go and I’ll forget this happened?”

“No, you’ll stay right there and you’ll be quiet, and maybe I’ll bring you something to eat tomorrow, if I feel like it.” Theo turns on his heel and Derek sighs again as he disappears from sight.

“Nah,  that won’t do” He says and then he jumps.

Derek wasn’t in town when this kid broke the pack with a smile on his face, one by one, but he heard all about it: he’s dangerously smart. Stiles’ level smart. Because of that, added to the fact that it’s Derek’s life and _luck_ they’re talking about, he doesn’t actually expect simply _jumping_ out of the hole to work, except it does.

Theo stops several feets away and turns back to stare at him in disbelief.

“Was that supposed to keep me trapped?” Derek furrows his brows glancing perplexed at the hole behind him. It’s not even _that_ deep. It’s a little confusing, he’s not used to this. His many kidnappers are generally more prepared.

“No, of course n- _oh come on!_ ” Theo is glaring at Derek’s feet and he follows his eyes, just to spot a circle of mountain ash around the hole, broken in the same spot where Theo was standing a few seconds ago. He walked on it. He trapped Derek with mountain ash and then he accidentally broke the circle by stepping on it. So this is what luck looks like, Derek takes note. “Fuck! Fine, you won, okay? The city is safe, I’ll never sleep, how am I even supposed to plot and fight back if I can’t rest my mind anyway. I’m out. Go finish your run in the woods.” Theo gives him his back and he looks like he’s just about to walk away.

“You just tried to kidnap me.” Derek points out impassive because it seems like something to talk about.

Theo turns back, studying him for several seconds.

“Nothing gets past you, does it.” He concludes and then he leaves.

Derek lets him, because he’s not sure what else he’s supposed to do.  He also instinctively follows him to a blue truck parked a bit from there because it seems something you should do when someone fails at kidnapping you and because he’s always been good at stalking people while hiding behind the threes.

Then Theo starts the truck and Derek goes back to his run, wondering why he ever thought that coming back to Beacon Hills was a good idea.

 

 

***

 

Liam offered him a place to stay the other day.

Theo has never been so offended before. He said no thanks, that he lives in a palace and he has about three rooms for his clothes only.

Theo used to be good at lying, but his mind is slowly deteriorating. 

They’re doing it, they’re killing him with sleep deprivation and it’s showing, or else Liam wouldn’t stop insulting him to offer him help. Theo is going to kill himself before he accepts to go live with Liam and his parents –what is he even supposed to say to them? _Hello, I almost succeeded in turning your son into a killer, nice to meet you, lovely house._ Yeah, no. Most importantly, Theo is going to kill Derek Hale before he does anything else.

He thought about it and he came to the conclusion that it’s not really murder if the other person _wants_ to die. And Derek doesn’t like being alive, it’s clear, or else he wouldn’t go jogging at five in the morning. No happy person would do that. It’ll be fine. It’s not like someone ever actually tried to arrest Theo for all the people he killed anyway. They only try to arrest him when they catch him sleeping in his car –because clearly that’s too much, murder? Fine. But sleeping in his car? That’s where the police of Beacon Hills draws the line. Fuck this town, honestly.

 

“We’re not doing this again.” Derek warns him as soon as Theo places himself in front of him, interrupting his run.

“No, we’re not.” Theo agrees, because that was tragic. He used to be so good at kidnapping people, what a shame. “I’m here to talk.”

Derek raises his brow. It’s pretty impressive. “About?”

“About how I’m going to murder you in cold blood if you keep jogging at five in the morning.” Theo explains very calmly. It’s fair, you warn people before killing them, that’s how good guys behave. He can have bloody hands but a clean conscience this way, and a clean conscience means being invited to pack nights, which means free pizza. “I’ll make things simple for you, Derek, these are your options: you either keep going running at five in the morning like a madman, but somewhere _else_ , far away from here, or you keep coming here, but not before half past seven. That’s it. You either do this or I’ll kill you. Choice is yours, I don’t care either way, it’s not personal.”

Derek’s eyebrow was already raised, but somehow it goes up even more now. It’s mesmerizing.

“It could sound like an empty threat since I probably didn’t do a professional impression on you yesterday, but it was just because I’m tired. If I decide to kill you, which I’m very close to, I’ll drive away from Beacon Hills, I’ll get a full night of sleep, and then I’ll come back to finish the job and I _will_ succeed when I’m not sleep deprived, trust me.”

Derek blinks. It doesn’t look like he trusts Theo.

Theo sighs impatient. “So, we have a deal? Are you going to stop coming here?”

“No, not really.” Derek says and then he runs away.

That’s it, his fate is fixed. Dead man running.

 

 

***

 

Two days later, Derek gets attacked by a black coyote while he’s jogging in the woods.    

It manages to give him a  few bites before Derek shifts into his majestic  wolf form. Then  it gives him another bite as well because Derek kinda expected the animal to just run away in front of a bigger wolf, like any wild animal would do, but no, this coyote absolutely hates him it seems. It’s unfortunate, because Derek always liked coyotes. They’re not friendly, but they usually mind their business.

He actually tries not to hurt the animal, it probably can’t help himself, because of instinct and also the story about Derek’s persona inspiring everything and everyone around him to try and kill him, but when the coyote almost slashes his throat with his teeth he bites back and in a few seconds he has it pinned down, a roar exploding between his fangs.

“Alright, alright, fine!” Turns out the coyote is not a coyote anymore. “No need to overreact, jeez.”

It’s the Chimera kid again and he’s naked under him. Derek immediately moves away and automatically shifts back. Except now he’s naked too. His clothes, especially his pants, are ripped on the ground because he hasn’t had time to take them off before shifting and the only thing not entirely destroyed it’s his leather jacket. He puts it on so he can at least cover some of his naked skin, but just before turning back he takes it off and he laces the sleeves around his waist. Better.

He turns to face Theo just to find his eyes staring very low. Derek raises his brow.

“Are you going to attack me again tomorrow?” He asks when it becomes clear the other is not going to be the one to break the silence.

“Most likely.” Theo shrugs and he’s still very much naked, smooth skin kissed by the sun and too much smugness in his eyes. His heart doesn’t miss a beat, but it’s not like Derek needed to ask: of course he’s going to attack again, that’s what people do when Derek is concerned.

“And why is that?” It’s a mistake, Derek knows that. Asking people why they do the things they do, that’s how you get involved and end up with a mortal wound in your chest and stuff like that, but Derek’s chance of ending up dead or injured even while minding his own business is still very high, so he might as well investigate a little.

Theo sighs and there’s a bit of desperation in his voice. “Because you wake me up every single morning.”

Derek frowns confused. “What?” He didn’t even took into consideration the possibility that he was actually bothering him somehow. People don’t usually need a reason to start fights with Derek.

“I hear you running every morning and it wakes me up.” Theo insists and Derek stays quiet for a little trying to make sense of it, until he does.  

“You sleep in your car.” He concludes and Theo snorts sceptical.

“I wouldn’t call it _sleep_.” He mutters while Derek keeps staring at him. At his eyes, that is. Because he’s still naked. Naked and homeless apparently.

“I’ll tell you what” Derek decides, adjusting the jacket better around his hips. Why does he always end up naked in the woods somehow? “If you can beat me, I’ll stop coming here.”

Theo seems interested. “Beat you to what?”

Derek smirks. “Running.”

“Fine. Let’s do it.”

“Not now.” Derek stops him a little embarrassed because the kid is still naked and most of Derek is too. He _wants_ to run, but he’d feel more comfortable doing it alone, away, possibly to never be seen again. “Tomorrow. With clothes on.”

“Okay.” Theo shrugs indifferent and Derek just starts running, a hand to keep his jacket in place. The wind lashing in his ears almost covers Theo’s distant voice. _“Your loss.”_

 

 

***

 

When Derek comes back the next day – _5 a.m. punctual as always_ – Theo is already out of his truck waiting for him. He’s wearing clothes today and it’s kinda a shame, because that ass was the absolute protagonist of Theo’s incoherent dreams during the little time he managed to sleep that night. The city council must have gotten the owls on board as well because they just wouldn’t shut up.

“Ready?” Derek asks him doing the insinuating thing he does with his eyebrows and Theo just smirks, getting into position. He’s feeling weirdly awake, like he hasn’t in weeks.

“Don’t ask stupid questions.” He grins smug,  He’s got this.

 

 

Theo didn’t got that.

“I’m not” He pants breathless, kneeled on the grass. “I’m not at my best right now. It’s not an even competition with you all rested and well fed while I’m here fighting with a town of ass-”

“You accepted it.” Derek cuts him off staring at him impassive, his arm crossed on his chest.  

“Whatever makes you feel better, man, it’s still uneven and so you’re no one to stay there and look down at me.”

“If you’d stand up I wouldn’t have to look down.” Derek is not exactly smirking, but his lips somehow look like he wants to.

Theo stands up.

Derek still absolutely has to look down at him and it would be pretty awkard if it wasn’t for the fact that awkard is for the people who sleeps at night. Theo has no time for that.

“Whatever.” He shrugs turning to go back to his truck. “I didn’t promise not to kill you if I lost anyway. Jog safely tomorrow. You never know what accidents could happen in these woods.”

“Why don’t you leave?

Theo stops. He didn’t expect Derek to actually react to his threat, especially not with a totally unrelated question. There’s no bite in his tone, just plain curiosity. Weird.

“What do you mean?” He asks, even if he knows exactly what Derek means. What’s even there for him? Little girls setting him on fire, that’s what.

Derek just stares at him, impassive. “Why don’t you leave?” He repeats.

“They’re so close to invite me to pack nights, I know it.” Theo says and he has no idea how much of it it’s the truth. “And, I mean, there’s pizza at pack nights.”

“There’s pizza out of Beacon hills too.” Derek points out.  

“Yeah, but they’re _so_ close to invite me.” Liam hesitated last week. He was totally thinking about it, Theo is not stupid, he knows it. He probably just wanted to talk to the others first. Which means Theo is not getting invited just yet, but they’re close. Lydia smiled at him two days before. That, or she had a spasm on her lip, but either way, progress.

“I can invite you.”

“What?” Theo darts his head towards Derek so fast he almost snaps his neck. Or at least that’s how it feels like.

“To pack nights.” Derek shrugs, like it’s nothing.

Theo frowns. “But you’re not...you never go.” It’s not like Theo stalked them or anything, there’s no lurking out of the window like a creep involved in his Wednesday nights, that would be pathetic. All Theo does is keeping an eye on them, and the other on the pizza man.

“I don’t, but I still get invited.” Of course Derek gets invited, he’s pack. Well, he’s not _pack pack_ like they all are maybe, because he’s never actually around, but it’s more like a _I’m too cool to hang out with you_ _when you’re not dying_ kind of thing and not a _you’re still too murdery to hang out with us when there isn’t any supernatural threat to the town,_ like it is for Theo. “So I can invite you, if I want to.”

Theo stays quiet for a long time, thinking, but in the end he has to resign himself to the fact that he can’t find a single explanation to why Derek would even want to invite him. That makes him pretty pissed. He hates not being able to understand people’s motives.

“Yeah well, I’m busy tomorrow anyway.”

“I didn’t said when it is.”

“It’s tomorrow, they have one every Wednesday night.” Theo affirms secure before even thinking. Then he clears his voice, slightly embarrassed. “Or I’d guess so. Maybe it’s Friday, I don’t know. I’m going now.”

“I’ll give you a rematch.”

He doesn’t go far.

“An even one this time.” Derek continues ignoring his shocked look. “I don’t live far, you can crash at mine so you’ll be all rested and well fed too tomorrow.”

This is the moment where Theo mentions his palace with three rooms for his clothes only, but Derek is not looking at him like Liam was, all apprehensive and hesitant. He looks like he doesn’t actually care what Theo’s answer will be and so Theo doesn’t care either.

“Yeah, sure, let’s do that.”

 

 

***

 

There’s an homeless Chimera silently following Derek home and Derek is very confused on how that happened. He’s pretty sure it’s his own fault though.

 

“That’s the kitchen” Derek says as soon as they walk in, pointing at the fridge. It’s been a while since he had any guest and he would have loved for things to stay that way, but here he is, accidentally  inviting over the guy that keeps talking about killing him.

“Are you sure, I would have swore it was the bathroom.” Theo smirks and he’s standing there in the middle of Derek’s living room with his hands in his pockets, his shoulder line visibly tense. He’s probably expecting Derek to do something he’s supposed to do, but Derek has always been careful not to take in any pet because he has no idea how to provide for another living creature, so he just closes the door.

“There’s water and food in the fridge. Take what you want, I’ll go shower.”

Derek feels like he did all he was supposed to do now, so he hurries to the bathroom.

 

 

Theo ate everything.

Derek didn’t have much in the fridge to begin with, because he often orders takeaway, but he’s still impressed. He ends up ordering pizza and Theo eats it as well. He’ll have to find something for breakfast tomorrow or else the kid will probably eat him too.

Derek kinda regrets jumping out of that hole now, being kidnapped is less stressful than this.

 

 

***

 

The leather coach is big and comfy, but Theo still takes a while to fall asleep.

He keeps glancing around the dark room and waiting for something to happen, for the forest animals to break in with all their noises, for some little kid to start screaming or setting him on fire, for an officer to suddenly point his torch right on his eyes, but nothing.

The only sound is his own breathing and Derek’s distant heartbeat from the other room.

Theo focuses on that, closes his eyes and he finally fucking sleeps. _Take that Beacon Hills._

 

 

***

 

The kid looks dead and Derek stares at him in confusion, already dressed and perfectly awake.

Wasn’t he supposed to have this light sleep? Wasn’t that the problem?

Eventually, Derek places a tissue right under his chin, where his expensive leather couch is being assaulted by  a waterfall of drool, and then he leaves for his early jogging in the woods. They can do their race later.

 

When he comes back Theo is still sleeping, so he replaces the wet tissue with a new one and goes buy some things for breakfast.

 

Derek is now at his third tissue and it doesn’t look like Theo will wake up today at all.

 

 

***

 

Theo has never felt so rested.

“What time is it?” He mumbles yawning and rubbing his eyes. Some napkins fall on the floor and Theo blinks confused. Weird.

“Almost three.” Derek informs him from his armchair, looking away from the book in his hands. “I’ve made breakfast and lunch, take what you want.”

“Both.” Theo immediately decides.

 

He takes a shower after and Derek lends him some clothes, -not that he thought about it, Theo had to explicitly ask because Derek doesn’t seem too good with this having guests thing - so when they go for their race a few hours later, Theo is wearing a blue sweater a little too big for him, but still, this time he feels at his best. There’s no way he’ll lose now.

 

Theo loses again.

“I mean” He pants, his hands on his knees. “You’ve been sleeping regularly for so long while it’s just a day for me. Of course you’re still in a better shape than me.”

“Rematch tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that’d be more even.”

Derek starts walking and Theo hesitates a little, but then he follows.

 

 

He loses again the next day, but he still has just two full nights of sleep on him and they agree for a rematch and they do it again and again and again, until it just goes without saying.

 

 

Theo basically moved in with Derek and they didn’t even notice.

 

***

 

 

Derek totally noticed to be fair.

 

***

 

It’s been a month and Theo is not sure when he stopped trying.

He’s not even sure if he _could_ win, if he actually ran as fast as he could. He doesn’t really care.

Life is good. He eats every day, he sleeps well, Derek even bought him a cot because drooling ruins leather apparently, and they do things together. They started eating at the same time at the same table and they watch movies almost every evening -Derek always lets him choose which one and Theo always chooses comedies lately, because that’s what Derek likes, at least judging by how hard his lips do the _I want to smile but I don’t want to_ thing. He does smiles sometimes tough. Sometimes even at Theo.

Which is why Theo always runs so ridiculously slow when they race. He’s doesn’t want to find out what happens when he wins, he doesn’t want Derek to go jogging somewhere else and he feels nauseous at the thought of lying down in the backseat of his truck once again.

So he never wins. Until one day, unfortunately, he does.   

He didn’t mean to, he didn’t realize it, he just got lost in his thoughts and in the adrenaline and now...

“I won.” He says shocked as Derek arrives to their finish line three a few seconds later.

“Yeah.” He nods slowly and Theo swallows.

That’s it. He accidentally won and now everything is over.

“Do you want a rematch?” He suddenly hears himself asking, even if his voice doesn’t sound like his at all, too fast and anxious.

Derek doesn’t look nervous at all instead. He's staring at him intensely and it looks like he took a step closer.

“I’d love to.” Derek says and Theo feels something soft against his lips as he smiles relieved.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
